Sangoma in the forest

I believe that difficulties in our lives, whether emotional, spiritual, or physical, are messages from our ancestors telling us that we are out of balance in some way and our connection to them and our core self is interrupted. When dealt with properly, these can actually be stages of deep transformation and profound healing.

~Gogo Indawo

Gogo Indawo yamaThuna Mathambo

The Keeper of the Bones

Sangoma Traditional Healer ~ Ancestral Shaman ~ Medicine Woman ~ Diviner~ Prophet

Gogo Indawo's Journey

Life is different being born with a calling. When I was very young I saw spirits. They would come to me at night. At first it was scary, but I got used to it. A few years later I started making remedies from the trees and plants in my yard. I was maybe 7 or 8. I spent most of my time outside. My friends were the snakes, frogs, bees, and any other animals that came around. I didn’t have many human friends. The ones I did have didn’t last long. 

I knew I needed to be a healer. Back then I’d say I wanted to be a doctor because that was all I knew living where I did.

 

Then the dreams started. I’d go underground and come up in a place with mountains, jungles, and ocean. I’d see lions, elephants, leopards, and monkeys. Every night I would explore. It was my safe and happy place. It was so real that I thought I found the entrance in the “way back,” a part of my yard that was past a section of trees. I was always angry when I wasn’t allowed to dig my way in. 

This also meant I was very different from other kids. I knew things without studying. I could make something just by looking at the finished product. I was labeled as “gifted.” What the other kids saw was weird. It was getting too much positive attention from the adults. To add to that, I’d bring snakes to school. That pretty much sealed the deal of making me an outcast and bringing on bullying. The separation and bullying lasted all the way through college. I’d have periods of hiding my real self in order to fit in.


When I was in the flow with my spirit, present and ME, anything seemed possible. I’d know. I’d do, I’d help people. I started doing divination and I could heal people with my words. But the disconnection from others, rarely having friends, and not dating when everyone else seemed paired up and happy created a deep sadness. I started separating from myself, hiding pieces as I tried to find the phantom thing that was a sense of being loved and accepted. I was hiding in plain sight. The problem was that no matter who I tried to be, no matter who that creation was, that love didn’t come. I felt very isolated. I’d move from place to place because nowhere felt like home. Then the ancestors touched me- it was time, they were telling me that I needed to do something. But I wasn’t doing it fast enough. I didn’t have the teacher, I didn’t have the direction. So I got very sick. In some ways I was a creator of the sickness because I searched and searched to figure out what was wrong with me. Why was I different? Why were my senses so intense I could smell colors? Why did I know things? Why could I tell people about their lives?


Then the ancestors stepped in again and helped me pull myself out of the sickness. I started studying healing modalities and working with them on and off. Sometimes the treatment is worse than the sickness was a truth that I fully understood because more aspects of me were closed off. Sometimes I had trouble connecting to my spirits and hearing them. I learned how to be everybody but myself. Still, the calling was always following me. Every time I’d create a new me, healing and divination would come back like a wave pulling me in. 


Then one day it happened. I had been a part of a group who helped me build my strength and connect more strongly to my core. My spirits came forward. They told me to throw bones as my grandma was transitioning. There was no teacher, but there were bones, teeth, and special objects that I had collected for decades and kept. At first all I saw was a pile of things. I spoke with my ancestors daily. I sat with them and listened. One day the bones started speaking. People started coming to me for bone divination. People recognized me when I was in public. And that was what it took for one of my main ancestral spirits to appear to me. He stood next to me. He’d come to me in my dreams. I started dreaming about water, beads, and ceremonies. That is how I finally found my teacher who told me that I was called to initiate as a Sangoma. So I did. I jumped in with both feet. No matter how hard things were I kept moving forward and I completed the process. But completion is only the beginning. The work, learning, and healing never end.


Throughout the process, and still even now, I draw in parts of myself that were hidden or left in the past. For every low, every trauma, every disappointment, there was a beautiful part of me that was also hidden. I learned how to rebuild myself, bone by bone, part by part, ancestor by ancestor, vision by vision.


I am here in service to YOU.


These are some of my credentials and modalities. Everything has come together and been transformed through my deep work and Sangoma process but I felt I should share.

Certified in therapeutic touch, Certified reiki master, Certified Life Coach, Ordained Minister, Training in Quantum Healing, Mindfulness Meditation, Mindfulness for Neurodivergent Populations, and Trauma Informed Care. 

I’m sure there are more, but in the end I’m just me- the accumulation of my experiences, healing, training, gifts, and ancestral spirits who work with me and through me.

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